No emailed traffic fines – JPSA

Reports that traffic fines could be emailed to motorists were incorrect, Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) has said in a statement.

“Nowhere in the proposed amendments is it contemplated that an ordinary motor vehicle owner or driver will have infringement notices delivered to them ‘by email’,” said JPSA chairperson Howard Dembovsky today.

Afrikaans daily Beeld reported today that the possibility of emailed fines emerged from the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Amendment Bill, published in the Government Gazette in February.

Dembovsky said that with only 11% of South Africans currently estimated to have access to the internet, it would prove impractical and practically impossible to deliver fines by email.

The bill indicated that where the “infringer” was a juristic person, being a company, trust or other organisations, then they would receive “electronic service” of the fine.

The term “electronic service” itself was problematic, as it was too broad and did not specify which exact type of electronic communication would be used.

Dembovsky said: “The amendment was proposed to facilitate a more efficient driver nomination process for companies that operate fleets of vehicles. Electronic service will benefit companies in the case of infringement notices that result from camera fines ... where the driver of the vehicle is not stopped at the time, so as to facilitate nomination of the driver timeously.”

Beeld reported that the introduction of Aarto, which was currently enforced only in Joburg and Pretoria, had repeatedly been postponed in other parts of the country because of administrative problems.

The Aarto penalty points system had yet to be enforced, 13 years after it was first proposed, largely because of legal wrangling and criticism of the legislation.

According to the newspaper, Joburg metro police had been quoted in earlier media reports as saying it had no budget to send notices by registered mail.

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